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roe v. wade (Jan. 22, 1973)

NOTE: If you are pro-life, and you’ve watched the entire video and are preparing to fly to the comments section to rip me apart about an innocent child’s right to life, I implore you to read the ENTIRE post first.

The greatest sexual assault committed against young women in today’s society is that which is against our freedom of choice.

The debate regarding reproductive rights in our country is an old one. It is heated by the same burning embers of Christian fundamentalism that propagated a “divine right” to commit mass genocide against Native Americans, enslave millions of Africans, unlawfully detain Asian-Americans during World War II, systematically maintain patriarchy, and continually deny gays and lesbians equal rights. It is discussed with the same intrinsic attitude of entitlement that allows an audacious, depraved “whiting out” of historical facts, encouraging a consistent revision that endorses the “it wasn’t that bad attitude.” It serves as yet another cause for billions of dollars to be funneled into the pockets of politicians who have so-long-ago sold out, they wouldn’t know the word “ethics” if it crept up and sucked their dicks. The debate isn’t a debate anymore, it’s a cash-cow — the issues having long since been buried beneath thousands of feet of rhetoric and propaganda and voter platforms and political positioning.

Now, don’t get me wrong, personally, I am pro-life.

That is — I have exercised my right, as a woman, to choose.

As a 28 year-old, healthy, employed, stable, African-American woman, I am pro-life. I stand as pro-life from the perspective of someone who has already beat the statistics. I stand as pro-life from the perspective of someone who can provide health and education benefits for my child.

What I’m trying to say is, I stand as pro-life from the perspective and experiences of someone who is prepared to stand as such.

But, when it comes to a 14 year-old girl …

When it comes to a rape or incest victim …

When it comes to someone who may be facing a miscarriage or life-threatening illness …

When it comes to a federal law threatening to rob a woman of the right to make her own decisions regarding her body …

I am pro-choice.

Look, I’m not saying abortion is right or wrong. That’s not for me to judge. I’m not saying I think it’s okay to use it as a primary (or even secondary) form of birth control. However, our society needs to come to terms with the fact that abstinence isn’t actually “fool-proof.” As parents, it’s not okay to avoid conversations regarding safe sex and healthy sexual activity with our kids under the guise that they should only be concerned with waiting until marriage. This is an unrealistic, and quite frankly an unfair, expectation in today’s society when information (from multiple perspectives) flows through our living rooms at the push of a button — whether we like it, or not.

Do I think every 16 year-old in America needs to be rushing to the nearest clinic to get her uterus scraped? Hell no.

Do I think we need to pass federal legislation outlawing abortion, thus stripping a woman of her right to choice with regard to her reproductive rights? Hell no.

What I think we need to do is foster open and honest conversations with our children regarding their bodies, sex, reproduction, contraception, AND emergency contraception.

On a more callous note, with unemployment percentages higher than ever, a national debt that’s growing by the day, a failing welfare and public school system, an explosive prison system, a faulty criminal justice system, and nearly 85% of our country’s children “left behind” … do we really want to even consider placing ourselves in a situation where EVERY woman who gets pregnant HAS to have the baby?

Hell, our nation’s foster care system can’t manage the children it has now!

With this being said, I’ll definitely be among those celebrating the 38th anniversary of the passage of Roe vs. Wade tomorrow. I am proud to have the right to choose.

4 Comments

I’d like to add to the rhetoric…nnI think the term “pro-life” is imprecise, as most folks who consider themselves as such are really only “pro-birth.” After all, it is simply about ensuring that the fetus develops into a child and is born. After that child is born, fuck ‘em. nnIf they are born into abject poverty they must pull themselves up by their baby bootstraps and defy all the odds against them – because those people, by and large, only want to ensure that the child is born and are the very same people who vote to…nndeny welfare benefits & other social programs, ncut public education,noverturn universal healthcare, nperpetuate the racist penal system – including the death penalty,nkeep LGBTQI people at a second-class status.nnThere is no further consideration as to the ability of the pregnant woman to actually raise the child, or what sort of life into which the child is being born. nnThere is more to life than breath. nn n

I can definitely agree with this. As a person who has professed to being personally pro-life, I can definitely say I am concerned with much more than simply making and delivering a baby. I’m in it for the whole kit ‘n kaboodle! nnDuring the summer of ’10, I got into a pro-life/pro-choice argument with a positively horrifying woman who actually admitted that although she was pro-life, she couldn’t possibly adopt a child. She went on to say she couldn’t even imagine bringing a “strange” child into her home … I was mortified and pretty much had to end the conversation right there … nnMaya Angelou taught me a long time ago to have no tolerance for ignorance. nnThanks for taking the time to comment, I really appreciate it!